To be very uncomfortable with 17 year old Billie Eilish's Bad Guy video?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Am I being an old gimmer?

It makes me deeply uncomfortable because she's not legally an adult, and I'm pretty certain the production team around her are all adults, possibly with the exception of an intern or two. Most of the men you can see in the video are.

It feels very exploitative. I don't know much about this singer, but a quick google shows she is open about mental health issues, so possibly quite vulnerable in a way, and then she's singing about bruises on her knees and rough sex, seducing dads (who are obviously going to be adult men!) and she's only 17 years old.

I'll be honest, I would have thought in 2019 this wouldn't be legal until the singer is 18 - or at least frowned upon by the industry as not acceptable? Not that it is magically better when someone turns 18 but the whole attitude seems very dated?

Ok. Thanks. I don't get why though - someone says, "do any other posters know any teens who would sleep with someone's dad?" And I answered the question. Should I have lied or just not answered? Do you only want to hear the answers that agree with you or from the women who would never have dreamt of it as a teen?

at the end of the video she is definitely being the exploiter, please watch the video before basing your opinion on a highly warped truth

Intriguing. I not clear what you're talking about?

Do you mean the bit where she's sitting cross legged on some bloke as he does push ups? If so, I don't agree - it's still catering to a male Femdom fantasy, a sort of teen domme subgenre.

"Whether up on a pedestal or down on your knees, it's all a male fantasy." Margaret Atwood.

do you mean the bit where she's sitting cross legged on some bloke as he does push ups? If so, I don't agree - it's still catering to a male Femdom fantasy, a sort of teen domme subgenre.

What can a woman do sexually with a young man that isn't catering to a male fantasy? Males have all sorts of fantasies, some women may well share.

Owl, sorry if I’m giving you a hard time. I remember being 23 (vaguely -I think). When you get to 40 you know people who’ve done pretty much anything tbh, but also it gets a bit tiring.

I think she's overrated and her music is lame and not creative at all.

Look at this lyric, I have never seen a man want this? My mommy likes to sing along with me
But she won't sing this song
If she reads all the lyrics
She'll pity the men I know


Or hell, here is the description by billies team themselves. bad guy” is a playful, bass-heavy track that sees Eilish taunting her lover, flaunting her tough nature while questioning his own.

Owl, I think it’s just that teens who think they are so liberated and woke, just come off as self-indulgent and up their own arses a lot of the time. It’s all so self-obsessed, like they need to prove something.

Saw her on TV at Glastonbury. Thought she was dreadful.

it’s all so self-obsessed, like they need to prove something.

Not really. Usually people act like they cannot believe young women would ever want these things, then turn it around as us being self-obsessed when we say anything back to that. We are wrong, they are right.

I've realised that Joanna really reminds me of Kourtney Kardashian.

Wrong thread!

Great song though

I can believe it, Owl. We’ve all been 17. But I think as you get older you just have less to prove. You do what you want. You have less tolerance for bolllocks. You know what works for you, sexually and that’s it. When you look at the teen stuff, whatever they’re doing at a given time, it’s just so self-conscious and contrived, it really does. You think thank god I’m past all that crap. Never again!

No doubt when I’m 60, I’ll look back at my 40 something self, and think, “god she thought she was so liberated and had all the answers, but she was full of crap.”

I've just watched the entire video and I honestly can't see anything wrong with it. I think you are also misunderstanding the lyrics.

Its her whole pretentious moody shit that has me cringing, although I feel bad for that now after finding out shes 17. The 'open about mental health' thing is a given nowadays. They're all got unspecified undiagnosed 'anxiety'.

I'm with @MargoLovebutter

I liked the song well before her Glastonbury appearance, which I thought was fabulous.

Not entirely sure my 11yr old DS was impressed at his almost 50 year old mother jumping around the living room to it...

Also remember my mother being outraged at Bobby Goldsborough's "Summer the first time" years after it's release. Ditto anything by FGTH which made me even more determined to play the Welcome to the Pleasuredome LP on repeat. Same with Do ya think I'm sexy, Maggie May, I'm too sexy, etc etc etc

What can a woman do sexually with a young man that isn't catering to a male fantasy? Males have all sorts of fantasies, some women may well share.

Of course women and men share fantasies, including young women.

It's about context. It's a 17 year old, singing about maybe seducing the dad of one of her peers, so that's going to be a guy of approaching 40 at least, so a skewed power dynamic - and lyrics full of porn tropes.

I think possibly the difference of opinion here is split between the people who feel porn is basically fine, and people like me who think a lot of porn is problematic because of how prevalent things like choking and slapping have become.

It's certainly not Billie's duty to be a good role model for anyone's kids, but I think she reflects how these porn tropes are absorbed by teens as regular, everyday.

Billie is certainly a strange girl, from her fashion to her videos.

Shes just a repackaged Lorde, and ten years ago the same version was Kate Nash. And they had other versions earlier, they just didnt pretend to write their own music then. God save me from 'quirky' singers.

just watched the video. what a strange young lady. the entire thing is bizarre.

Iggy Pop used to cut himself with broken glass onstage. Richey Edwards was not much older than BE when he carved up his own arm in front of a journalist. Some performers like to do stuff to shock, some are exploring stuff that's scary or upsetting because they find it interesting, some because it's a way of dealing with their own distress.
I think the most irritating thing about all the clammy-handed concern-trolling here is the idea that Eilish can't possibly be playing around with concepts such as toxic relationships, self-loathing etc, she must be either some random little girlie being used by male music industry figures or a tragic victim of her own torment. She comes across as an artist telling stories in song. Much as it might appall her and her fanbase, this middle-aged mum really likes her stuff.

I just watched the video on the basis of this thread

It’s not what I expected from the OP. I feel like you’ve misinterpreted it completely and missed a large element of piss taking.

I just googled the video. She's amazing! Really individual and artistic. Nice track. Maybe just chill out - this is what teens do. Challenge older people

Ellie Goulding did the nose bleed in video first so this isn't exactly original (although I'm no fan of hers and do love BE)
Uncomfortable, yes, I'm sure that's precisely what she wants.

(BE, I mean)